The Crystal Palace Rally was a gathering of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts at

the Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

on Saturday, 4 September 1909. The rally demonstrated the rapid popularisation of the Scout Movement with an estimated 11,000 boys attending with the prominent presence of Girl Scouts also being significant for the start of Girl Scouts and

Girl Guides Girl Guides (or Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) are organisations within the Scout Movement originally and largely still for girls and women only. The Girl Guides began in 1910 with the formation of Girlguiding, The ...

. The rally was held a year and a half after the publication of ''

Scouting for Boys ''Scouting for Boys: A handbook for instruction in good citizenship'' is a book on Boy Scout training, published in various editions since 1908. Early editions were written and illustrated by Robert Baden-Powell with later editions being exten ...

'' and '' The Scout'' magazine, and two years after Robert Baden-Powell's demonstration Brownsea Island Scout Camp. Some controversy occurred with attempts to exclude Scouts from the British Boy Scouts, Church Scout Patrols and other scouts not registered with Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts organisation leading to challenges regarding the 4th Scout Law that "A Scout is ... a brother to every other scout". The Scouts' Own, a simple, non-denominational religious ceremony, was introduced at this rally by H. Geoffrey Elwes. Members of the local Scout Troop, 2nd Croydon (1st Crystal Palace Patrol), formed part of the flag party for Princess Christian, a member of the royal family in attendance. The Group still meet near Crystal Palace Park and regularly use Crystal Palace Park for Scout activities.

Girls

Several hundred Girl Scouts also attended, including one group under their Patrol Leader Marguerite de Beaumont. They dressed in the Girl Scout uniform as given in the Scout handbook, called themselves Girl Scouts, were referred to as Girl Scouts by the media and others and several hundred girls were registered as Boy Scouts. Girls had been part of the Scout Movement almost as soon as it began. A contingent of girls from Peckham Rye spoke to Baden-Powell at the Rally. The media coverage of the rally, including that in ''The Spectator'' magazine in October–December 1909 initiated by Miss Violet Markham, led to the founding, in 1910, of the Girl Guides organisation under Baden-Powell's sister,

Agnes Baden-Powell Agnes Smyth Baden-Powell (16 December 1858 – 2 June 1945) was the younger sister of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, and was most noted for her work in establishing the Girl Guide movement as a female counterpart to her older bro ...

that further led to other Girl Guide and Girl Scout organisations around the world. Baden-Powell decided to create an entirely separate organisation for girls, the Girl Guides and excluded girls from his Scout organisation. In those days, it was not common for girls to camp and hike, as this extract from the Scout newspaper shows: "If a girl is not allowed to run, or even hurry, to swim, ride a bike, or raise her arms above her head, how can she become a Scout?",. Attendees who later influenced the Scouts and Guides included Nesta G. Ashworth née Maude, later instrumental in the setup of Lone Guides, Rotha Lintorn-Orman and Nella Levy, a pioneer of Guiding in Australia. To commemorate the event, in September 2009,

Girlguiding UK Girlguiding is the operating name of The Guide Association in the United Kingdom, previously named The Girl Guides Association, which was formed in 1910. It is the original Girl Guides organisation in the world and, in 1928, became a founding m ...

opened a Centenary

Maze A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lead ...

in Crystal Palace Park.

References

{{Use British English, date=September 2010 Crystal Palace Scout Rally, 1909 Girlguiding Crystal Palace, London

Girls

See also

References